This little crossroad has quite an interesting history. An historic marker suggests that Herod Town was one of the last remaining Indian villages in this section before European settlement. Local legend maintains that when General Andrew Jackson and his troops came through here en route to the Seminole Wars in Florida in 1818, they met with the village chief, “Old Herod” and were on friendly terms with him.
Much of this may be apocryphal.
The young men of the village reportedly joined Jackson in his Florida Campaign in the First Seminole War (which almost led to another war with Great Britain). While Jackson and his forces were in North Florida, a contingent of the Georgia Militia attacked the friendly Creek village of Chehaw in nearby Lee County. Old Herod, or Howard as some accounts give his name, was at the village and was killed while trying to stop the attack. When Jackson learned of The Chehaw Massacre, as it came to be called, he was furious, and ordered the Georgia Militia officer arrested. This incident went all the way to debate in the U.S. Congress. The site of the Massacre is marked by a monument off New York Road in Lee County.